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action_lawyer_comics t1_j9njyf5 wrote

Reply to comment by Snoo57923 in Never let me Go - Ishiguro by bunnyju194

First off, it was all a slow burn. It was all implied, but with that British "Stiff upper lip" where they never acknowledged how fucked their situation was. It was all right there from the start, but easy to forget during all their chats about art and pencil cases and boys.

But to me the real twist was that these kids were the exceptions, ones allowed to lead idyllic if short lives up to the point where they went in for donations. Maybe 10% of all clones were like the and the rest were in factory farm conditions closer to the horror of cloned organ "donations" that would be the "norm." For everyone who had a chance to be a model for a gentler way of getting cloned organs, there were hundreds in unspeakable conditions, harvested at the first point where they would be viable doners. That was the part that kicked my ass emotionally.

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Champlainmeri t1_j9nr7ac wrote

Man, that is a major plot development I never knew.

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action_lawyer_comics t1_j9nsyqv wrote

It gets mentioned when they meet up with the people from the school. They mention that Hailsham was an experiment to try a gentler way but that the country had moved on and went with a “different approach.” I don’t think they came right out and described the horrors of it (because like everything in that book it was just alluded to in gentle language), but my imagination had no trouble putting a disturbing picture together.

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bbhlcd t1_j9r9tu0 wrote

One of the main reasons why art was pushed so hard at their school was that the founders were trying to prove they have souls, proving that they should be treated like humans rather than like livestock.

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Lsedd t1_j9px2nn wrote

That's not really a twist, just plot development.

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action_lawyer_comics t1_j9pznsh wrote

Fair point. But I think this book is kinda tricky in that regard, since pretty much every big reveal is given away but with its importance downplayed. Strictly speaking, there aren't any huge twists in the style of Fight Club or The Prestige, but nevertheless the book manages a couple really good surprise kicks in the teeth.

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thriveth t1_j9qgzcu wrote

Technically true but the delivery is just such that it has the same effect in practice of completely switching the perspective.

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Lsedd t1_j9qzdcv wrote

Its a reveal. You know something's up, you just don't know what it is, it's eventually...revealed. A twist is when you have no idea that anything is up and the reveal comes out of nowhere and changes everything.

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